Tony Blair was urging police and local councils today to make full use of new powers to crack down on yobbish behaviour blighting the lives of thousands of people.

The Prime Minister was visiting a London housing estate to highlight the measures available to the authorities in England and Wales to deal with low-level thuggery and nuisance neighbours under the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill.

He called on police and councils not to "drag their feet" in using powers in the Bill which is nearing the end of its passage through the House of Lords.

And he told them that they must all bring themselves up to the levels of the best if communities up and down the country are to be successfully "reclaimed" for the law-abiding majority. The new powers include fixed penalty notices for offences such as noise nuisance, truancy, graffiti; compulsory parenting classes for the parents of unruly children and powers to disperse groups of youngsters.